Chair of UN panel on Syria pledges to probe attacks

Paulo Pinheiro, the
chair of the International
Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, is a
seasoned diplomat trained in the tradition of Brazil's foreign affairs
ministry, Itamaraty, with its celebrated emphasis on impartial mediation, dialogue,
and strong skepticism toward foreign intervention to resolve international
conflicts.

However, during a
meeting Thursday in the Brussels office of the United Nations, he could not
hide his indignation over attacks against civilians in Syria. As his report clearly
establishes, these abuses are carried out by governmental forces, "with the
apparent knowledge and consent of the highest levels of the state," as well as
by anti-government armed groups, "although their abuses are not comparable in
scale and organization with those carried out by the state."

Pinheiro also sharply
criticized the Syrian government's policy toward the media. "I am really
concerned by the lack of access for the international media," he told a small
group of journalists. "The situation is all the more worrying since journalists
who work underground run additional risks. I talked recently to the
correspondent of the Brazilian daily O
Estado de Sao Paulo, who sneaked over the border from Jordan, and I was
really relieved when I heard that he was back in Geneva."

CPJ research shows
that eight local and international journalists have been killed on duty in
Syria since November, at least five in circumstances that raise questions about
government culpability. A CPJ review of the fatalities found substantial
evidence that two local journalists, Ferzat
Jarban and Basil
al-Sayed, were directly targeted by government forces. In addition,
circumstantial evidence and witness statements point to the possibility that
government forces may have taken deliberate, hostile action against the press
that led to the deaths of three international journalists, Gilles Jacquier, Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik.

The diplomat refrained
from directly attributing responsibility for the killing of journalists to the
Syrian state. "The Syrian government does not do anything to protect
journalists but we cannot prove that these journalists have been directly targeted,"
he said. "In fact some
of these deaths [Colvin, Ochlik] occurred after we had ended our mission."

Published on February
22, the 24-page
report of the International Commission devotes a special section to denouncing
the "severe restrictions on freedom of expression and information," such as the
arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists and bloggers, and refers to CPJ reports of killings, "two of
which were attributed to State forces." It also highlights the death
of French TV journalist Gilles Jacquier on January 11, and underlines that
"the government and the Free Syrian Army exchanged accusations over
responsibility for the incident."

However, he said the commission
is committed to going beyond the "he said/she said" statements. "As our mandate
will likely be renewed," Pinheiro told us, "we must make a more thorough
analysis of what effectively happened to these journalists."

CPJ has documented
dozens of cases of journalists missing or arrested for their work in Syria as
well as foreign journalists expelled. Most recently, two Turkish journalists, Adem
Özköse and Hamit Coşkun, were reported missing this week and are believed
to be in government custody.

Although the
Commission advocates for dialogue as a solution to the conflict it has also triggered
the mechanism of international justice. "In the meantime," the report states, "thorough
monitoring of the situation of human rights needs to be continued and evidence
of international crimes and other gross violations systematically collected to
facilitate the process of holding those responsible for such acts accountable."

"We have identified a
list of people who could be indicted for crimes against humanity," Pinheiro said.
"This list has been placed in a safe and in a briefcase with two locks, each one
of them given to a different person." The day when it will be opened by the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights, this list might be a first step in the
fight against impunity for the crimes committed in a
country that has largely sealed its borders to independent reporters.

CPJ Europe Representative Marthoz is a Belgian journalist and longtime press freedom and human rights activist. He teaches international journalism at the Université catholique de Louvain and is a columnist for the Belgian daily Le Soir.

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This site is dedicated to Marie Colvin, left, an American reporter working for The Sunday Times of London, and Rémi Ochlik, a French photographer, were killed in Syria. Both reporters accompanied the CNN team that was filming 72 Hours Under Fire out and then returned due to the scope of the catastrophe and the need for coverage from the front lines.